Aesthetics of Repetition
On Habib Rezai’s works

The smallest and fundamental units of meaning, X and Y axes, have provided a framework for defining shapes, much like in various sciences, including geometry. Each line moves precisely like other lines and relates to them in its own network within a system of axes. No line is superior to another. No line has priority over another; all lines are valid on the same level. No event remains disconnected. The abundance and self-similarity of fractals in the random patterns of the works are anti-centric. There are no singularities, turning points, peaks, or dips in their articulated graphs, and all this means repetition!

What appears at first encounter with repetition is not remaining/being unchanged. In a common view, difference means change, and repetition means stability and permanence. However, just as Gilles Deleuze does not see them as opposites, he considers repetition as a cause of change – if we review the rules of nature and sciences, we will find countless examples of it. Repetition is not about the sameness of the artistic object; instead, it exerts a powerful force towards becoming, bringing about novelty and freshness that arise from repetition.

Attachment: Since I have been the audience for this collection of works, I cannot easily take the place of a spectator who is only confronted with two parts of the whole – the tradition of group exhibitions. Whether this tradition is suitable for presenting works of this kind or not is a question that I defer its answer to a time when we witness an individual exhibition from this collection.

Dr. A. Hakim
2019